Mazda3 Forums banner

Used Oil Analysis for 11K OCI

4K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  shipo 
#1 ·
I normally always keep right on top of maintenance, especially oil changes for the various vehicles in our family. However this has been a really busy period of time for me, and I completely lost track of when the next oil change on my Daughter's 3i was supposed to happen. I did check the oil regularly, and that is actually what 'helped' me go astray, along with a couple long trips she made that didn't register with me. With the normal 7.5K OCIs I'd been doing, this 3i has never needed any top-off whatsoever, and the full synthetic oil always looks great on the dipstick and the rag. And that continued to be the case, all the way through 3.4K 'extra' miles! Every oil check never looked anything less than outstanding.

So at 10.9K miles since the last change, I finally woke up and realized that we had gone into overtime. Having previously read many accounts of very long OCIs with full synthetic, I wasn't overly concerned. However it was breaking new ground for me, given the previous max OCI of 7.5K (for 2 of our vehicles). I also figured this extended OCI had given me a good reason to have a UOA done, which is also something new for me.

When the UOA came back with flying colors, I was pleased but not surprised by the results. I'm not posting this with the intent of trying to convince anyone to do longer OCIs - it's just an FYI about the results from one vehicle for anyone who is interested in this stuff. Frankly, I'm not even certain what I'm going to do going forward. I'll almost certainly extend my OCIs, but have not yet determined by how much. In any case, I'm now MUCH less concerned about doing 'book' OCIs than I was prior to this experience.
 

Attachments

See less See more
1
#2 ·
Thanks for posting this. I did an oil analysis 2 years ago:

http://www.mazda3forums.com/10027458-post22.html

It was with Mobil-1 Synthetic 5w-20 and I got good results. Right now, I have Pennzoil 0w-20 in my engine, and it isn't due for a change till spring. I'll probably submit a sample for analysis. I do tend to drive on the right side of the tach after a proper warm up.

I'm glad to see you got good protection from Pennzoil.
 
#3 ·
I'm right there with you about being happy with this Mazda 2.0L engine. It uses zero oil, and I've found almost nothing related to internal issues being reported online. We also have a 2011 Kia Forte with a 2.4L port injected engine that's had a history similar to the 3i. I'm really not looking forward to the inevitable day when these 2 vehicles need to be replaced, because it seems that just about everything being produced these days is direct injected and/or turbo, and I have a strong personal bias against those technologies. Likely wishful thinking, but perhaps EV will turn the corner sooner rather than later.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top